Question: Do you have any plans for doing a Welsh pantheon?
Actually, yes, someday! There's a long list of pantheons that we'd love to see add their gods to the Scion community, and the Welsh is one of them. If you'll look over to the right, you'll see that the Welsh pantheon is one of the options on the poll we're maintaining to decide what the next pantheon we work on will be, and though they're not in the lead, they're definitely making a strong showing.
The list on the poll is usually a pretty good indication of what pantheons we're interested in working on, but there are always some more and our excitement often changes as we read about a particular pantheon and get all enthusiastic about it. Today, I'm jonesing to work on the Inuit, Finnish or Hittite (hey, I can dream!) pantheons, but tomorrow, who knows?
Hey, let's take this opportunity to talk about pantheons that aren't in the game yet! We usually put up the pantheons we're considering adding on the poll, but which ones are you guys most interested in seeing? Are there any missing from the list that you just can't live without?
The major ones I'd like to see are Australia and Polynesia, since Oceania as a whole is lacking in terms of Scion content :( I'd be curious in seeing how you'd do the Australians though, considering it sort of has the same problem as the American aboriginal faith in that it's a LOT of different cultures with different Gods.
ReplyDeleteYeah, for real. There are at least more common threads between some of the Australian tribes, including wandering hero figures who are traded around between neighboring peoples, but it's definitely a complicated situation. And one without as much good scholarship on it as there should be, unfortunately.
DeleteI think we definitely need an option for more of the Native American Pantheons in the next poll. Like Oceania, everything north of Mexico is now an empty wasteland as far as Scion is concerned.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, I'll reiterate my customary 'Man I hope the Finns win before I'm old' wish.
Other than that, there are certain pantheons like the Tibetans, Mongolians and Filipinos that I wouldn't mind seeing, but Asia needs the Amatsukami and Shen revamped first, and Scion as a whole needs them with much less urgency than it needs Oceania and North America populated.
You make good points. The Inuit are my current most-wanted North American pantheon, but there are so many to choose from (Navajo! Cherokee! Algonquin!)
DeleteMmm... Tibet.
Going by your world mythology map, the Inuit and the Algonquin pantheons cover the largest geographical areas, so I'd suggest those be the flagships of your Native American collection. I'd also like to see the Haida, since haven't we all wanted to be Scions of Raven at one time or another?
DeleteThe funny thing, considering the question that brought this discussion on, is that out of all the pantheons you've got on your poll and the ones people are describing here, the Welsh are probably the ones I'm least excited about.
There are always those die-hard Celtophiles that want every one of them included in the game. Once we finally do a Welsh supplement, I'm sure they'll start agitating for the Iberian regional gods or something. :)
DeleteSo many pantheons, so little time.
Speaking of the Iberian peninsula, have you ever considered the Basque Gods?
DeleteWhen it comes to the question of which North American Pantheons should come first I'm always reminded of elementary school when we learned about the tribes native to what's now the US in four broad cultural groups; Eastern Woodlands, Great Plains, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest (the Inuit would probably be a cultural group of their own, but weren't included in those lessons because their territories are up in Canada).
DeleteSo I've always kinda thought that the first five North American Pantheons to crop up for Scion (ambitious number, I know, but I can dream) should be one for each of those groups. Inuit would of course be in as they seem fairly culturally distinct from other tribes. I don't know too much about the Southwest but the Navajo seem to be a popular choice there. Along the Pacfic Northwest I'm partial to the Haida since they seem to have quite a few interesting gods, though I'm not quite sure how many they have that would be considered Legend 12 yet. For the Great Plains I'd definitely vote Lakota, Whope and Mica Coyote are both gods I'd love to see in the setting.
As for the first Eastern Woodlands representative, that one you could probably argue about a bit. Algonquin seems to be the most widespread, and also seems to embody a lot of the concepts that most commonly come to mind when people think of the natives from that region. The Iroquois were hugely influential as well, in a standard Scion setting their fingerprints would probably be all over structure of the US government. They'd be a bit of a smaller pantheon though, no more than 6-7 Legend 12 gods. But they are set up pretty nicely to be converted into a Scion pantheon. And, of course, the Cherokee are awesome as well. Just so many amazing pantheons out there...
I'm not entirely sure how many more of these amazing Pantheons (from all over the world, not just Native America) will be feasible though...not because I don't want them or because I don't think John and Anne couldn't do a stellar job of them...but because I'm an ardent 'One Pantheon One Titan' supporter, and there are only so many fundamental underpinnings of the universe before we have to fall back on Vritra level insanity!
Delete@Lesingnon: Seven would actually put them on par with the Tuatha, so I don't think that should be an issue. And for the record White Buffalo Woman has my vote too.
What culture do the Spider Woman myths originate in?
@Anne: You've often spoken of splitting the Sky purview. I was wondering, could Sky and Storm be different Titanrealms?
Ooh, the Haida. Yes, please! Of the Native American Pantheons, I'd most want to see the Haida and the Algonquin, with the Inuits third, and I'm not sure if the Lenape have their own mythology but they are my Natives so to speak because my area is Lenape land. They all got moved west though so we don't have any local reservations for me to go learn. :(
DeleteThe Lenape do have a religion, although we don't know as much about it as some of the better-preserved ones. :) Some scholars include them as part of the overall Algonquin area, but I'm afraid they're not one that's familiar to me so I can't say if that's justified.
DeleteNot to mention Africa! Yes, sure, there's the Pesedjet and the Orisha, and they are both great (even though only the Orisha can claim to be from "Africa Proper" (Sub-Saharan Africa, that is)...
ReplyDeleteThing is, there is a ton of cultures in Africa, and Scion needs more fun African pantheons! I know next to nothing myself (like most people), but the Ashanti, Bushmen, Dahomey, Masai and Zulu sound like they could be a lot of fun, not to mention giving a good representation of the mythological landscape of Africa.
Besides that, I agree with preceeding comments. Australia and Polynesia, and a bucketload of North American pantheons. Please? :P
So true. Ashanti's always a favorite because of Anansi, and I'm a big fan of the Bushmen myths, too. You can't go wrong with /Cagn.
DeleteYou guys are so awesome at suggestions. :)
Of the current poll choices I'd most like to see the Australian and Polynesians represented (which is good because it looks like one of them'll be next on your list). As for future choices, I also want to see the Cherokee up there eventually.
ReplyDeleteOoh, Cherokee! John and I actually live close enough that we could go out to to the nearby Cherokee reservation and museums during research phase. Field trips are the best!
DeleteThe Cherokee have some *fucked up* monsters, man. Awesome Titanspawn potential. I'm a big fan of raven-mockers and liver-eaters.
DeleteNo doubt. Spearfinger is the stuff of nightmares, man.
DeleteWhich ones would I like to see? Oh boy...
ReplyDeleteWell, Polynesian Mythology has kind of had my interest piqued for a while now. I'd like a Hittite Pantheon if for no other reason than that I figure it must have the potential to be crazy awesome in Scion if Anne wants it so bad. And ever since the blog post way back when about why Tibetan mythology would fit so well in Scion I've been poking around at Bön a bit and would love to see that come into play as well.
Then there's the can of worms that is Native American Mythology, which has always been of interest to me. Pantheons from there I'd love to see include Iroquois (hides my half-finished attempt at a write-up), Algonquin, Cherokee, Lakota, Navajo, Haida...
Really I'd just love to see all the world's pantheons with enough gods in them to work in the setting written up for Scion. But that's just not realistic...at least not until scientists figure out how to clone John and Anne.
I know, right? "All of them" is always my answer, too.
DeleteOf the ones that are already there I'm most interested in Welsh and Inuit with Australian a close third. I'd love a Tibetan pantheon as well, but the Bon religion is hard to research online, and my library sucks when it comes to mythology, so I know little about their gods. For the ones not on the poll, the Cherokee and Navajo are some of my personal favorites, the Navajo even have a huge story that details almost all of their gods so they're probably the easiest to research. For Africa, the Ashanti, Masai, Zulu and Dahomey all seem really interesting. And for some reason I want the Hungarian gods, can't explain that one.
ReplyDeleteI've done a little research on Bon, and it is definitely crazy complicated to figure out, what with different time periods of the same religion plus Buddhism dancing all over it at random moments. It's very neat, though.
DeleteI can't explain it, either, but then again I can't explain my love of the Hittite pantheon, so I feel you!
My vote goes to Polynesian after Amatsukami, but...
ReplyDeleteI would love to see the Other category get put up on the poll, where you can toss a bunch of memorable gods(with no PSP). This would let you hit with very broad strokes some key figures in North America, Australia, Southern Africa, Southern South America, Cernunnos, Baron Samedi, and maybe even a cool Hittite god just to appease Anne.
I think that will definitely be on the poll soon. It'll probably be on the normal work poll rather than the new pantheon one, though - we usually do full new pantheons concurrently with other projects.
DeleteHmmm...Where to start? Welsh, yes. Hittite, definitely. Australian - more to those guys than I thought. "All of the above, plus more"? A bit too ambitious, I suppose. :-) The problem with the North American pantheons would be deciding whether to do an amalgamated one [not accurate] or a ton of smaller ones [a lot of work, much of it for strictly regional religions]. Whatever you guys do, I'll read it - you are a great source of ideas and info.
ReplyDeleteAll of the above - check!
DeleteI would love to see the Guarani pantheon, but since I think they won't even show up in the polls, I vote for the Inuit gods.
ReplyDeleteHey, part of the reason we're asking is to see if there's anybody that should be on the polls who isn't. :)
DeleteI would like to see the finnish and their reindeer myths.
ReplyDeleteMan, who wouldn't?
DeleteAh, the Guarani. A pantheon with a god who wraps his penis around his waist when he isn't using it for more nefarious purposes. Now that would lead to some interesting Scions...
ReplyDeleteThere's a distressing increase in prehensile penis legends the further south you go in the Americas. It worries me for Scions down there.
DeleteI am flabbergasted that people other than me give a shit about the Guarani. It's a good flabbergasted though
ReplyDeleteRainforest party!
DeleteTibet! ...but you knew that already. ;)
ReplyDeleteLesignon, Samudra, anyone else who's interested - I've been tinkering with a write-up for a Tibetan pantheon off-and-on for, like, the last year. There are some particular parts of the project that I'm a little stalled on, and I could use some collaboration. I know Anne's pretty substantially booked with her own projects right now, but if anyone would like to see what I've got so far and throw in their two cents, email me privately at terriblyuncreative (at) gmail (dot) com.
I probably wouldn't be too much help yet. Most of the information I have on them so far has come from poking around the internet, and it's hard to find anything too in depth on them there. So I'm still mainly at the point where I know some of the broad strokes about the mythology and think it sounds pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteBut that'll change soon-ish! I just became a friend of the library for UW-Madison which means I can borrow books from them again, and they've got a ton of stuff on mythology. Tibetan Mythology is definitely fairly high up on the list of stuff I want to look into, and I know there are plenty of books about it at Madison, so hopefully I'll be of a lot more help before too long.
I'm not sure how much help I'll be, but I'd love to read what you've done so far anyway!
ReplyDeleteI'm having a fun time working on the research for a korean pantheon. It's proving to be awesomely entertaining...if a little difficult. But they lend themselves well to scion with all their demigod legends.
ReplyDeleteDude, I love them. They are little-known and heavily influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism, but man, their stories are hilarious.
DeleteAbsolutely! It was mainly started by how many Scion stories I've read that go through Korea like it's not important. And I just started wondering "How would the local gods feel about that?" And it just built from there.
DeleteOh, yeah! The Koreans! And let's not forget the Vietnamese while we're at it. Though out of the ones we've mentioned, I agree that the Finns are worth a good treatment.
ReplyDeleteSo many Gods, so little time...
ReplyDeleteI know, right?!
DeleteHonestly I know people love the celts but lay off Europe, its so filled up. More africa, more north america. Whatever group Anansi is a part of. I mean its totally not because I keep trying to float a nerdy scion who decides to go out and be spiderman.. nope...
ReplyDeleteIn that case, also see Tsitsinako (Grandmother Spider) down in the Navajo and Zuni area of the southwest United States. Spiders everywhere!
DeleteI don't know her legends well. I was thinking something like the movie/comic kickass but going all sorts of right because well son of a god. And going out to be a tricksy superhero seems to be both a way to honor the whole theme and cause facepalming at the same time. Not sure how "Spiderman" Tsitsinako would work out as if you get my meaning?
DeleteThe Finnish ones would be great.
ReplyDeleteEspecially since it'll help work out the pantheon landscape around that area (Aesir, Bogovi and the Finnish pantheon).
Poor Finnish gods. The Aesir are all like "RAAA CEASELESS WARS" and the Bogovi are all "ROARR COSMIC LAWMAKING" and the Finnish gods are like, "hey, guys, I invented flour today, how are you?"
DeleteBut Sampo?
Delete